How the probe works

The Etizei probe and responsible monitoring

Etizei checks the sites configured by its users with server-side HTTP requests, not a browser. This page explains how the probe identifies itself, how it behaves toward the sites it checks, and what you can do if you run one of the monitored sites and want to recognize or filter these requests.

How it identifies itself

Every request from the probe carries a stable, transparent User-Agent:

EtizeiMonitor/1.0 (+https://etizei.com/monitoring-info)

It never changes, never imitates a browser or another crawler, and is the same for every monitor and every customer. Alongside the User-Agent, the probe sends three dedicated headers:

  • X-Etizei-Monitor: 1, present on every request from the probe;
  • X-Etizei-Probe: primary, identifies the probe type;
  • X-Etizei-Request-ID, a random identifier that differs on every request, useful for correlating a log entry with a specific check. It is never an internal account or customer identifier: it reveals nothing about who configured the monitor.

Requests originate from a dedicated Etizei server. If you need the IP address for a whitelist, reach out through the contact form or at info@etizei.com: we'll provide it along with notice of any future changes.

Responsible behaviour

The probe is designed not to behave like an aggressive bot:

  • it respects a minimum gap between two requests to the same host, even when several monitors from different customers target the same domain, and never opens more than one request at a time toward the same host;
  • it spreads checks over time with a random margin, so many monitors with the same interval don't all fire at the same moment;
  • when a site signals a rate limit or a block, it doesn't push through: it slows down and suspends checks toward that host, honouring the Retry-After header whenever the server provides one, and backs off further if the signal repeats;
  • it may allow a further attempt only for errors that are plausibly temporary (timeout, connection refused, a server error): never on a block or a rate limit;
  • it follows redirects within a conservative limit, re-evaluating each hop under the same site-friendly rules;
  • when several monitors from different customers check the same resource at the same time, it avoids needlessly repeating the same request;
  • when the page content isn't needed for the check, it reduces how much it downloads instead of always requesting the full page.

The probe never tries to work around a block, a firewall or a rate limit: if a site stops it, the probe stops too, and distinguishes this case from a site that is genuinely unreachable.

Statistics and analytics

Etizei runs server-side HTTP checks and does not use a browser. It does not execute JavaScript and does not load Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, Microsoft Clarity or similar scripts present in the monitored pages. The requests can still appear in server logs, provider statistics, CDN systems, or server-side analytics tools.

It does not keep or send cookies of any kind, does not send a Referer header, and in the lightweight (HEAD) request mode it does not download the page content when it isn't needed.

How to exclude Etizei from your statistics

If you run a site monitored by Etizei, you can recognize and filter its requests in any server-side or CDN tool using, in order of reliability:

  • the X-Etizei-Monitor: 1 header, the most reliable option;
  • the EtizeiMonitor/1.0 User-Agent;
  • the probe's IP address, available on request at info@etizei.com.

For frequent checks (every minute), we recommend setting up a dedicated, lightweight technical endpoint, for example /.well-known/etizei-health, responding with a simple {"status":"ok"}: it reduces load on your site and keeps automated checks out of your commercial page's statistics. The real homepage can still be checked, just at a lower frequency (10-15 minutes). This endpoint is not created automatically by Etizei: it's a configuration you make on your side, and you'll find a step-by-step guide in the panel after logging in.

Requesting assistance

If you need a whitelist, a different frequency, or want to report monitoring you believe is unauthorized, a false positive, or an incompatibility with a firewall or WAF, reach out through the contact form or at info@etizei.com. You'll hear back from our team, not an automated form.